Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln (12 February 1809-15 April 1865) was President of the United States from 4 March 1861 to 15 April 1865, succeeding James Buchanan and preceding Andrew Johnson. Lincoln was the first president elected by the US Republican Party, although he was a liberal, and he was opposed to the popular sovereignty that allowed for slavery to flourish in the American South. He led the Union during the American Civil War, and he was assassinated by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth at the end of the war.

Biography
Abraham Lincoln was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky on 12 February 1809, and he was raised on the frontier in Kentucky and Indiana. He became a lawyer after educating himself, and he also entered politics as an American Whig Party member, entering the State House of Representatives before entering the US House of Representatives in 1847. Lincoln became unpopular due to his opposition to the Mexican-American War, but he returned to politics as the US Republican Party's leader in 1854. In 1858, he lost the Illinois senate race to Stephen A. Douglas of the US Democratic Party after engaging in a series of debates with him, but he became a celebrity for his arguments against slavery and states rights. In 1860, he ran as the Republican presidential nominee, and he defeated Douglas and Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge to become the next President. Upon his election, eleven states in the American South seceded to form the pro-slavery Confederate States of America, and Lincoln remained the president of the remaining northern and western states. The Union fought against the CSA during the ensuing American Civil War of 1861-1865, and Lincoln originally sought only to preserve the union, with or without slavery. However, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, freeing all slaves in the United States, and the Union recruited African-American soldiers into the US Army. In 1864, Lincoln defeated Democratic challenger and former Union general George B. McClellan to secure re-election as president, and he made the Southern Democrat Andrew Johnson his vice-president. By April 1865, the war was going well for the Union, which was closing in for the kill as Confederate forces retreated towards Richmond. On 14 April 1865, five days after the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House, Lincoln was shot in the back of the head by John Wilkes Booth while viewing the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater in Washington DC. Lincoln died of his wounds a day later, and Andrew Johnson succeeded him as president. Lincoln was the first president to have been assassinated (although some believe that Zachary Taylor was the first), and he is currently seen as one of the greatest American presidents, if not the greatest.